Prevelence of Population with Incontinence

[PuraVidaDip]

Does anyone have any good stats on the number of people affected in the general population? Specifically by age would be handy. Some of the stats show the percentage who have just occasional vs every day. Many of the studies I found are over age 65. Specifically I was curious about the under 65 populations. 

[Little Sherri]

I just read an article that said that 3 million people in Canada experience some form of incontinence on a daily basis. I imagine that they've excluded babies from that number, since they were speaking specifically about people who use adult incontinence products. Canada is home to about 38 million people, so that's about 8% of the population, although if you take the 0-4 age range out of that number, that's about 1.9 million people who might still be expected to be "primarily incontinent", so that takes the incidence of "some kind of incontinence" up to about 8.3% of the Canadian population age 5 and over. I would imagine that the stats in the US, UK and Western Europe would be similar, whereas in Japan, for example, where their demographics skew older, it's probably higher, and for, say India, with its much younger population, they'd be expected to have a lower incidence.  

[Dprczyone]

Just did the math on that for the U.S. Would be somewhere near 27 million incontinent people. I didn't know what the 0-4 numbers were so I'm only somewhere in the neighborhood. I wouldn't be surprised though since we have an aging population.

[PuraVidaDip]

So NorthShore says 10-36% of the adult population but references a 65+ study. 10% is probably total or mostly incontinence and 36% is probably occasional like sharting or leaking once’s a month on occasional I think. https://www.northshorecare.com/blog/guide-to-opening-up-about-incontinence
 

[ValentinesStuff]

The problem with getting numbers is that only a fraction of the incontinent people have reported the problem to their doctor. 

[Cruiser 03]

Yeah Canada is easier to mine data about any condition being diagnosed due to government control of health records because the government is the payer .

here in the states many people are either working enough not to be eligible for healthcare or are working poor and health insurance is a luxury they can’t afford , then add in people who are embarrassed to see a doctor about it and just deal with it without formal diagnosis  using conveniently plentiful available cheap diapers at everything bigger than a 7-11 .

so an honest accounting of incontinent people is a fools errand , your better of looking at  total adult diaper industry sales as in a 18+ billion dollar market and then SWAG an estimate of a pack of diapers (everything from cheap crap store brands to premium , so let’s say average price $17  dollars for 15 diapers , then do the math to get about how many packs of diapers are sold , you will capture both incontinent and ABDL as a group with the results but since ABDL is a much smaller percentage of overall sales it will get you closer to true number than people being officially medically diagnosed and labeled . JMHO 

[PuraVidaDip]

13 hours ago, Cruiser 03 said:

Yeah Canada is easier to mine data about any condition being diagnosed due to government control of health records because the government is the payer .

here in the states many people are either working enough not to be eligible for healthcare or are working poor and health insurance is a luxury they can’t afford , then add in people who are embarrassed to see a doctor about it and just deal with it without formal diagnosis  using conveniently plentiful available cheap diapers at everything bigger than a 7-11 .

so an honest accounting of incontinent people is a fools errand , your better of looking at  total adult diaper industry sales as in a 18+ billion dollar market and then SWAG an estimate of a pack of diapers (everything from cheap crap store brands to premium , so let’s say average price $17  dollars for 15 diapers , then do the math to get about how many packs of diapers are sold , you will capture both incontinent and ABDL as a group with the results but since ABDL is a much smaller percentage of overall sales it will get you closer to true number than people being officially medically diagnosed and labeled . JMHO 

Is that the North American market or the global market?

[DLJeff52]

Love the math approach!  I believe that is the global market number, of which about 53% is actually briefs or undergarments.  

Approach 1:

If we start with 18% of the 18+ population being incontinent, that would be 38M in the United States with some form of incontinence.  If we assume that 12.2M have urge incontinence and 15M have stress incontinence and that both are treated with pads or undergarments, but not diapers, this would leave 10.8M suffering from other incontinence.  If we assume that 40% of these are elderly in some form of LTC, then that gives us 6.5M under 65 that are incontinent and likely use diapers fully or most of the time. 

Approach 2:

I found an Illinois study that says 13M are incontinent and 50% are elderly living at home or in LTC.  That would mean 6.5M are fully incontinent and under 65.  

Approach 3:

Now let's assume that US has 35% share of global adult diaper market and 60% of market is diapers.  

That would mean that the U.S. would see just shy of $4BN spent on adult diapers.  

a.  Assume the average incontinent person wears 3 diapers in a 24 hour period

b.  Assume average price per diaper is $.80

Then there would be 4.6M incontinent people wearing diapers in the United States.

Approach 4:  SWAG the ABDL community at 5% of people buying diapers?  That would put you at 230,000 - 350,000 people.  With the US population at 329M and other ABDL estimates at 1% of population, that would put you at 329,000?

I know this isn't scientific, but it was fun to think about for a little bit!  

 

[PuraVidaDip]

1 hour ago, DLJeff52 said:

Love the math approach!  I believe that is the global market number, of which about 53% is actually briefs or undergarments.  

Approach 1:

If we start with 18% of the 18+ population being incontinent, that would be 38M in the United States with some form of incontinence.  If we assume that 12.2M have urge incontinence and 15M have stress incontinence and that both are treated with pads or undergarments, but not diapers, this would leave 10.8M suffering from other incontinence.  If we assume that 40% of these are elderly in some form of LTC, then that gives us 6.5M under 65 that are incontinent and likely use diapers fully or most of the time. 

Approach 2:

I found an Illinois study that says 13M are incontinent and 50% are elderly living at home or in LTC.  That would mean 6.5M are fully incontinent and under 65.  

Approach 3:

Now let's assume that US has 35% share of global adult diaper market and 60% of market is diapers.  

That would mean that the U.S. would see just shy of $4BN spent on adult diapers.  

a.  Assume the average incontinent person wears 3 diapers in a 24 hour period

b.  Assume average price per diaper is $.80

Then there would be 4.6M incontinent people wearing diapers in the United States.

Approach 4:  SWAG the ABDL community at 5% of people buying diapers?  That would put you at 230,000 - 350,000 people.  With the US population at 329M and other ABDL estimates at 1% of population, that would put you at 329,000?

I know this isn't scientific, but it was fun to think about for a little bit!  

 

So this is interesting: https://www.ncmedicaljournal.com/content/ncm/77/3/211.full.pdf.

1 in 25 (4%) adults have a severe fecal incontinence problem. 8% have fecal incontinence once a month.

The charts are interesting as well. 4-10% of males age 30-39 have fecal incontinence of some sort. It is more common than most assume as evidenced by the prevalence of ads etc.

[babykeiff]

The actual numbers of diaper dependent people in the world is unavailable. This is due to

• people not reporting it
• people not admitting it to themselves
• doctors not reporting it
• people beliving that weting/pooping themselves is infantile and a failure to graduate from babyhood.

Estimates are available, excluding the pre-toilet trained and those who, due to other issues such as accident that rendered them incontinent, the estimates are 5%-40% of the world population have occasional to full bladder &/or bowel loss. 

These figures are based on reversing the production count of both full mat diapers to the pull up / insert pad style.

Business does not create a product and then, look for a market to sell this product in. They research the demand, and then create a product to meet the demand. To create the product takes time and a lot of money in building the factory, the production line (sometimes designing and building the relevant machinery to participate on the production line) investing in the raw materials and the relevant delivery, and then creating the relevant agreement in retail to stock and sell the items. On top of this is the marketing campaign on TV in such a way, since we are talking about diapers - what most people think as infantile clothes - to be sold to adults for adults to wear, without offending your customers.

Production lines, on a run product 10-100 units per minute, and the normal time to run a production line is 12-24 hour shifts.

• 100 units per minute = 144,000 units or (14,400 packs of 10)
• Average of 3 sizes and 50-100 different brands = 3*100*14,400 = 4,320,000 produced per day.
• One can assume that multiple production lines run in a factory (3-4 one per size)
• 4 * 4,320,000 = 17,280,000 diapers etc.
• Divide this by 3 (average use per day) = 5,760,000 users roughly

All these figures, and the calculations are estimates. Some countries run larger and faster production lines like China, Japan and India where the sale of adult diapers outsell those for pre-toilet trained children. Also, this does not account for the cloth diaper usage.

I would guess that the true figure is 30%-50% of world population wear some form of bladder and/or bowel protection.

[PuraVidaDip]

Just doing some follow-ups here (various geographies): Goal / provide clear data to help end the stigma!

A lot of this is just reported, so the actual numbers must be higher. I am most curious about the 40-65 range. Over 65 the numbers increase dramatically.

 

1% of adults 40-65 with fecal incontinence

10-15% of adults 40-65 with urinary incontinence

 

IE - more common than most assume, even under 65!

 

~1% of the population between 40 and 65 have full fecal incontinence

"Fecal incontinence is a physically and psychologically debilitating condition that has a negative impact on quality of life, leads to embarrassment and social isolation, and strains personal and family relationships. A prevalence up to 12% has been previously reported.1,2 Men and women of all ages can be affected by fecal incontinence, although studies suggest it is more prevalent with increasing age.3 In a large community-based study, the prevalence of fecal incontinence was 0.9% in adults between the ages of 40 and 64 years and 2.3% in adults older than 65 years.4 In clinical practice, more female than male patients are typically evaluated for this condition."

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3783075/

~3-17% of the population have urinary incontinence

"In women, moderate and severe bother have a prevalence ranging from about 3% to 17%. Severe incontinence has a low prevalence in young women, but rapidly increases at ages 70 through 80. In men, the prevalence of incontinence is much lower than in women, about 3% to 11% overall, with urge incontinence accounting for 40% to 80% of all male patients."

source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1476070/

~15% of 40-65 women have urinary incontinence

PARTICIPANTS:Sample of 485 women aged between 40 and 65, obtained by randomised sampling of the census of health cards, stratified by the three kinds of health districts (rural, urban and peri-urban). MAIN RESULTS:Mean age was 52, with 15.4% prevalence of UI (2.6% stress, 10.6% urge and 2.1% mixed). In the multivariate logistic regression, association with the number of vaginal deliveries (OR = 2; 95% CI, 1.2-3.1) and with constipation (OR = 2.5; 95% CI, 1-6) was found. CONCLUSIONS:The prevalence found situates UI as a relevant problem in the population under study. Most women had not consulted the doctor on the problem. Several associated risk factors could be prevented, which justifies the setting-up within PC of coordinated programmes of UI education and prevention for this group of women.

source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/14622553

40% of women over 65 have urinary incontinence

Source: https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/urinary-incontinence

More stats:

https://www.allaboutincontinence.co.uk/incontinence-statistics